December 2022 — MHCE Newsletter

News from MHCE 

DECEMBER 2022 EDITION 

Democratic Sen. Warnock 

Wins Georgia Runoff 

Against Walker 

See page 22 

Monthly Newsletter 

WWW.MHCE.US 

dismissal or fighting to 

be brought back into the 

ranks. 

The Army Keeps Booting COVID Vaccine 

Refusers as Shot Requirement May Be 

Dropped 

The Pentagon's 

COVID-19 vaccine 

mandate appears on the 

verge of being eliminated 

by Congress after just 

over a year, yet the Army 

-- the only remaining 

service to never slow 

down separating troops 

who refuse inoculation -- 

said Monday it will not 

pause those separations. 

The Army has kicked 

out 1,841 active-duty 

soldiers for refusing 

inoculation, according 

to the latest service data 

released Friday. The 

Navy, Marine Corps and 

Air Force have halted 

or been barred by the 

courts from continuing 

separations, particularly 

for troops requesting 

religious exemptions, as 

legal fights play out over 

Defense Secretary Lloyd 

Austin's August 2021 

order that all service 

members be vaccinated. 

Now, lawmakers might 

strike a deal to nix the 

vaccine mandate as part 

of the annual defense 

authorization bill after 

Republicans pushed 

for the repeal and the 

Marine Corps said 

vaccine disinformation 

in parts of the country 

is hurting recruiting. A 

vaccine mandate reversal 

could also set up an 

unprecedented legal 

fight with troops seeking 

compensation for their 

We will not speculate on 

any potential legislative 

actions, and continue to 

follow the policy of the 

Department of Defense 

and the United States 

Army to achieve a fully 

vaccinated force," a 

service spokesperson 

told Military.com in a 

statement Monday. 

The details of the 

massive defense bill 

were expected to be 

released Tuesday, and it 

was unclear whether the 

soldiers who were kicked 

out would be allowed to 

return to service or be 

provided compensation 

by Congress. 

"Will the services be 

proactive? Will they reach 

out to those discharged 

and allow them to enlist 

or commission or will 

Continued on page 12

2 | MHCE - News www.mhce.us DECEMBER 2022 EDITION

WWW.MHCE.US Monthly Newsletter | 3 

Merry 

Christmas! 

— From our family to yours —



Focus on Oversight a Key for Success at 

CoreCivic 

In the corrections industry, maintaining high standards of 

operation is imperative to meeting the needs of the individuals 

in our care. That's why CoreCivic adheres to a stringent set of 

guidelines set forth by our own standards, as well as those of our 

government partners and the American Correctional Association 

(ACA). 

Founded in 1870, the ACA is considered the national benchmark 

for the effective operation of correctional systems throughout 

the United States. To become accredited, a facility must achieve 

compliance with ACA mandatory standards and a minimum of 

90 percent non-mandatory standards. CoreCivic facilities adhere 

to ACA standards, and in 2020, CoreCivic earned an average 

ACA audit score of 99.6 percent across all facilities. 

Key ACA audit areas include facility personnel, resident reentry 

programs, resident safety, health care, and more. 

holds our facilities and staff to a high standard. To be able to 

represent our facility and receive reaccreditation in person is an 

honor." 

Adhering to ACA standards is only one part of CoreCivic's 

commitment to robust oversight. When government partners 

utilize CoreCivic's services, we are held not only to our own 

high standards and those of the ACA, but we are often held to 

the same or higher accountability of our public counterparts 

through stringent government contracts, unfettered access to 

our facilities for our partners, and hundreds of on-site quality 

assurance monitors. 

We provide access to our government partners, with most of 

our facilities having government agency employees known as 

contract monitors who are physically on-site to ensure we are 

operating in line with partner guidelines. 

Recently, the ACA held in Nashville, Tennessee, its 151st 

Congress of Corrections, an annual convention that brings 

together corrections professionals from across the country. In 

addition to various workshops and events at the convention, the 

ACA Commission on Accreditation also held panel hearings to 

award accreditation to correctional facilities that meet the ACA's 

rigorous requirements. Listed below are the seven CoreCivic 

facilities that earned reaccreditation this year, with mandatory/ 

non-mandatory scores: 

• Bent County Correctional Facility - 100/99.0 

• Citrus County Detention Facility - 100/100 

• Eloy Detention Center - 100/100 

• Lake Erie Correctional Institution - 100/99.3 

• Saguaro Correctional Center - 100/99.8 

• Stewart Detention Center - 100/100 

• Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility - 100/100 

"The accreditation process is very important," said Warden 

Fred Figueroa from Eloy Detention Center, one of the seven 

CoreCivic facilities that was awarded reaccreditation. "ACA 

To maintain our own high standards, annual on-site audits covering 

all operational areas are administered to ensure compliance with 

contractual and regulatory obligations and corporate-mandated 

requirements. Each CoreCivic Safety facility is audited by our 

internal quality assurance division, which is independent from 

our operations division. Facilities are expected to be audit-ready 

year-round, maintaining continuous compliance with numerous 

applicable standards. 

CoreCivic employs 75 staff members dedicated to quality 

assurance, including several subject matter experts with extensive 

experience from all major disciplines within our institutional 

operations. 

"A lot of hard work goes into preparing for these audits," 

Figueroa said. "Once they're complete, the staff can see their 

accomplishments and feel proud." 

Having multiple levels of oversight helps CoreCivic maintain 

a safe environment for those in our care. By holding ourselves 

accountable to our own high standards, along with our 

government partners' and ACA's standards, CoreCivic continues 

to be a trusted partner working to better the public good.


WWW.MHCE.US Monthly Newsletter | 7

8 | MHCE - News www.mhce.us DECEMBER 2022 EDITION 

Bill to Help Deported Veterans and Non-Citizen 

Troops Clears House 

Deported veterans would have an easier path to 

returning to the United States, and non-citizen 

service members would have earlier opportunities to 

apply for naturalization under a bill passed Tuesday 

by the House. 

The bill, called the Veteran Service Recognition 

Act, would also add more hurdles to deporting noncitizen 

veterans. It cleared the House in a largely 

party-line 220-208 vote. 

"What American would deny that we should treat 

non-citizen veterans with fairness and compassion," 

House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mark 

Takano, D-Calif., the bill's sponsor, said on the 

House floor. "This is an opportunity to honor our 

brave veterans for their heroism regardless of the 

country they were born in." 

The bill still needs to pass the Senate in order 

to become law, an unlikely prospect with just a 

couple weeks left in this congressional session and 

Republicans holding enough seats in the upper 

chamber to block bills they oppose. In passing the 

bill Tuesday, House Democrats used the last days of 

their majority to send a message on an issue they've 

been pushing since the Trump administration. 

Non-citizens are eligible for expedited citizenship 

if they serve honorably in the U.S. military. But 

advocates charge that defense and immigration 

officials put up too many hurdles in the process 

and don't do enough to inform immigrant service 

members of their eligibility. 

Deportations of immigrant veterans garnered 

significant attention during the Trump administration, 

which took a hard-line approach to immigration in 

general.


The Biden administration has sought to roll back 

some of its predecessor's policies, including issuing 

a directive in June saying Immigration and Customs 

Enforcement, or ICE, will consider U.S. military 

service when deciding whether to deport veterans. 

The Biden administration has also been reviewing 

deported veterans' requests for humanitarian parole 

to reenter the United States under a program launched 

last year called the Immigrant Military Members and 

Veterans Initiative, or IMMVI. 

But immigration advocates say the Biden 

administration has not moved decisively enough. 

As of June, just 16 veterans and family members 

had been allowed back into the country under a 

temporary status known as humanitarian parole 

through the IMMVI program. Advocacy groups 

have also accused the Pentagon of slow-walking 

immigrant service members' citizenship applications 

despite a 2020 court order nullifying the Trump 

administration's more difficult application process. 

“Men and women who served honorably should not 

face barriers to citizenship or face deportation from 

the country they served or fought to defend,” the 

American Legion said in written testimony to the 

House earlier this year in support of the bill. “It is 

only right that we recognize their service with the 

pathways to citizenship they deserve.” 

Under the bill approved by the House, non-citizen 

service members would have to be afforded the 

opportunity to apply for naturalization as soon as 

their first day of service. The bill would also call on 

the Pentagon to have a Citizenship and Immigration 

Services employee or someone else trained in 

immigration law stationed at each military entrance 

processing station to ensure non-citizen recruits 

have information on naturalization opportunities. 

In addition, the bill would allow deported veterans 

to apply to become legal permanent residents of the 

United States if they have not been convicted of a 

serious crime. 

And it would create a "Military Family Immigration 

Advisory Committee" at the Department of 

Homeland Security to review cases of veterans and 

their family members facing deportation and make 

recommendations, based in part on their military 

record, on whether they should be allowed to stay in 

the country. 

A couple hundred veterans could be affected by the 

bill, Takano said. 

In a statement Tuesday, the White House said it 

supports the bill and "recognizes the need to improve 

our laws to better protect noncitizens who honorably 

serve in the Armed Forces." 

Republicans largely opposed the bill over what they 

have described as a Biden administration-fueled 

"crisis" at the U.S.-Mexico border. Republicans cite 

record numbers of Customs and Border Protection 

encounters with immigrants at the border and drug 

seizure numbers. 

The bill "creates additional carve outs to an already 

broken immigration system," Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., 

the ranking member and likely next chairman of the 

House Veterans Affairs Committee, said on the floor. 

"Right now, DHS can't even do their job of securing 

the southern border and enforcing immigration law." 

Republicans also argued that most deported veterans 

have committed other crimes and so are too dangerous 

to be in the country. 

Many deported veterans' convictions are drugrelated, 

according to a 2019 Government 

Accountability Office report and some advocates 

argue that traumatic events in the military and a lack 

of access to resources afterward often contribute to 

those crimes.



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it be up to law firms to seek 

reenlistment or compensation?" 

William Hudson, a partner with 

Tully Rinckey, a firm specializing 

in military law, told Military.com. 

"The people I've talked to want to 

serve; they really wanted to stay 

in. I would hope those discharges 

will be allowed back in." 

On Saturday, Politico reported the 

Democratic chair of the House 

Armed Services Committee, Rep. 

Adam Smith of Washington state, 

put the mandate on the table in 

negotiations over the must-pass 

National Defense Authorization 

Act, or NDAA, which sets 

funding and policy priorities for 

the Defense Department. 

Since the pandemic began, GOP 

lawmakers have attempted to 

stonewall efforts to combat the 

spread of infections or boost 

immunities and have used the 

Pentagon's inoculation mandate as 

a partisan rallying cry. 

However, Austin recommended 

on Sunday that the COVID-19 

vaccine mandate stay in effect. 

Meanwhile, the White House has 

also opposed any repeal efforts, 

but signaled that the mandate 

is negotiable in the upcoming 

defense policy bill. 

"With respect to NDAA, those 

discussions are ongoing," White 

House Press Secretary Karine 

Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday. 

Troops are required only to get the 

initial vaccination, not a booster 

shot. According to the Centers for


Disease Control and Prevention, 

it's unknown how long the 

vaccinations protect against the 

worst effects of COVID-19, 

though they're estimated to 

remain effective for about a year, 

and many service members were 

vaccinated in early 2021. 

For now, the Air Force, Navy and 

Marine Corps are in a holding 

pattern on removing troops 

due to court challenges. Some 

1,200 Coast Guardsmenare part 

of a class-action lawsuit due to 

their religious exemptions being 

denied. 

Troops are already required 

to maintain at least a dozen 

other vaccinations for ailments 

including the flu, hepatitis and 

smallpox. But COVID-19 was 

instantly politicized, and the 

vaccines embroiled in conspiracy 

theories and misinformation. 

Army officials interviewed by 

Military.com have said that most 

religious exemption requests are 

spurred by disinformation about 

the vaccine and that if a soldier 

had no objections to previous 

vaccines, their request would 

likely face a swift rejection. 

Roughly 1,000 soldiers sought a 

medical exemption, and 65 were 

approved across the active-duty 

force, National Guard and reserve. 

Meanwhile, the Army National 

Guard has yet to suspend any of 

the 37,000 part-time troops who 

have not been vaccinated, though 

commanders are supposed to 

forbid unvaccinated Guardsmen 

from attending any training or 

deployments. Army Secretary 

Christine Wormuth has not 

issued guidance on separating 

Guardsmen since July, when that 

ban on training went into effect. 

Guard officials interviewed 

by Military.com, including 

two adjutants general, say that 

sidelining those troops hit a major 

hurdle without clear guidance 

from Wormuth. While those 

troops will not be paid, they still 

take up space on a unit's roster, 

meaning they potentially hold 

onto jobs and can make it harder 

for soldiers below them to be 

promoted. 

Some have pointed to the Pentagon's 

recent recruiting struggles as 

being partly attributable to the 

vaccine mandate, though virtually 

all evidence points more to 

widespread problems such as 

obesity, difficulty passing the 

military's SAT-style entrance 

exam and tougher scrutiny of a 

candidate's medical background. 

"There was not accurate 

information out early on and it 

was very politicized, and people 

make decisions and they still have 

those same beliefs. That's hard 

to work your way past, really 

hard to work," Marine Corps 

Commandant Gen. David Berger 

told Military.com on Sunday.


"Since February, Kroger has attempted on dozens 

of occasions to negotiate in good faith with [Express 

Scripts Inc.], seeking a more equitable and fair contract 

that lowers cost, increases access, and delivers greater 

transparency -- but there has been little to no progress 

to date," Kroger officials said in a statement Sept. 30 

announcing the termination of their agreement. 

Kroger is set to acquire Albertsons and its affiliates by 

2024, given regulatory approval, which could further 

reduce the number of network pharmacies. 

Thousands of Tricare 

Pharmacy Locations 

Could Be Lost Due 

to Kroger-Albertsons 

Merger 

A planned merger of Kroger and Albertsons grocery 

corporations could slash the number of Tricare network 

pharmacies and send beneficiaries searching for a new 

place to get their prescription medications in the coming 

year. 

Tricare beneficiaries who get prescription medications 

at a Kroger pharmacy or other store in the Kroger group 

received letters last week telling them that the company 

is leaving the Tricare pharmacy network effective Jan. 

1. Its plans to acquire Albertsons, Safeway, Vons and 

other retail grocery chains could reduce the network by 

another 5,000 stores, according to the Military Officers 

Association of America. 

The grocery giant announced the decision to leave the 

network last month in response to a contract offer from 

the Defense Department's pharmacy benefits manager, 

Express Scripts, which was described by Kroger officials 

as not meeting "equitable and fair" standards. 

Albertsons operates its own branded stores and other 

common retail grocery chains. A loss of these stores 

could reduce the Tricare retail pharmacy network by 

nearly 5,000 locations, in addition to Kroger and the 

nearly 15,000 small and independent pharmacies that 

were dropped in October. 

"Just the independents leaving is a 25% cut to the 

number of pharmacies in the network. If you take out 

Kroger plus Albertsons, now you are talking about 

a 33% cut to the network if there is nothing done to 

bolster it otherwise," said Karen Ruedisueli, director of 

government relations for health affairs with the Military 

Officers Association of America. 

"It's just really disturbing, because the pharmacy benefit 

was a key component of the compensation and benefits 

package to retain an all-volunteer force over two decades 

of war," Ruedisueli added. "It's just not OK." 

Neither Kroger nor Albertsons responded to a request 

for comment on the ongoing acquisition discussions and 

the potential impact on the Tricare pharmacy network. 

An Express Scripts spokeswoman said that the company 

couldn't speculate on the impact of the proposed merger 

but added that all Albertsons pharmacies are in the 

Tricare network. 

"We will be prepared to make any necessary 

network changes to ensure that Tricare beneficiaries 

have convenient, affordable access to prescription 

medications," said Justine Sessions, a spokeswoman for 

the pharmacy benefits manager.


In October, 14,963 retail pharmacies left the Tricare 

network rather than accept the terms of a contract 

offered by Express Scripts. Many of the pharmacies 

opted out of their contracts, but others never learned of 

the change, given their corporate structures, and were 

blindsided when Express Scripts announced that the 

dismissals were effective Oct. 24, rather than on Jan. 1 

as was expected. 

The Defense Health Agency and Express Scripts 

maintain that, despite the loss of those pharmacies, more 

than 90% of beneficiaries will have access to a pharmacy 

within a 15-minute drive. 

Then, Kroger bailed, effective Jan. 1. The company not 

only controls Kroger Supermarkets, but also operates 

Ralphs, Dillons, Smith's, King Soopers, Fry's, Fred 

Meyer, Harris Teeter and other stores. 

Jennifer Bittner, an Army spouse who volunteers with 

Exceptional Families of the Military, said she knows 

families who received letters this week telling them 

they had a month to transfer their prescriptions to either 

a military treatment facility, Express Scripts home 

delivery or another network pharmacy. 

"They make it sound so simple, and it's not simple 

whatsoever, especially for families that are [in the 

Exceptional Family Member Program] and have 

complex medical conditions," Bittner said. 

Following Kroger's announcement, Express Scripts 

reached out to some of the pharmacies that were ousted in 

October, offering them the chance to rejoin the network 

under a new contract that would be effective on Jan. 15. 

The terms of the new contract, however, were the same 

as those offered earlier this year and are untenable, 

according to Ronna Hauser, senior vice president of 

policy and pharmacy affairs at the National Community 

Pharmacists Association. 

"[They are] severely underwater reimbursement terms 

that would leave our members losing money on 80+% 

of prescriptions billed for Tricare patients. The terms 

offered were so egregious," Hauser said. "Especially 

with the news from Kroger, we are still dubious as to 

how Express Scripts can maintain network adequacy 

standards." 

She added that in the past several weeks, some of the 

association's members that own multiple pharmacies 

have learned that some of their stores were removed 

from the network while others remain. 

"They have no idea what the contract terms are for the 

stores that are still able to submit claims. It's just a mess," 

Hauser added. 

Lawmakers have pressed the Defense Department for 

answers regarding pharmacy access for beneficiaries 

and the terms of the contract offered by Express Scripts, 

saying the loss of pharmacies would have a negative 

impact on some of the sickest patients, including 

children; those with cancer; veterans and their family 

members in long-term care; and those needing specialty 

medications, such as infusions. 

"This leaves patients, including those with cancer and 

rare diseases, with the impossible choice of either 

switching to a new and often far away pharmacy or paying 

high out-of-pocket costs to stay with their established 

pharmacy. This is no way to treat our service members 

and their families," wrote Rep. Buddy Carter, a Georgia 

Republican and pharmacist; Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., 

the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee; 

and others in a letter Nov. 21. 

The lawmakers requested that the Defense Health Agency 

attend a listening session with patients, pharmacists and 

others affected by the change. 

Ruedesueli said her organization is lobbying to reverse 

the cuts to the network and hopes the DHA will address 

the concerns but "realizes that legislation might be 

necessary." 

"We appreciate the many congressional offices that have 

sent letters on the matter and look forward to working 

with them to achieve protections in statute to maintain 

the integrity of the Tricare pharmacy program. Our 

beneficiaries, including many vulnerable populations, 

are counting on it," she said.


"I do think if they work on it long enough, it's going 

to work," Lewis told Military.com. "The successful 

test suggests that they're making progress. I still 

think they're going to be fairly niche capabilities. 

It's an open question as to how much value it will 

produce." 

Air Force Clears Hurdle 

for First Hypersonic 

Weapons 

Airmen at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana 

have figured out how to attach the service's new 

hypersonic missile to an aircraft, a major hurdle in 

getting the weapon produced. 

The Air Force's Air-Launched Rapid Response 

Weapon, known as the ARRW, uses a rocket booster 

to glide the missile toward an area at breakneck speed 

before a glider separates to hit a target. Airmen at 

Barksdale's 2nd Maintenance Group, 307th Aircraft 

Maintenance Squadron through "trial and error" 

have finalized how they will attach and unload the 

weapon from an aircraft, a Thursday news release 

from the base said. 

"With the validation of loading and unloading 

procedures, the weapon can start live fire testing 

and then production," Barksdale Air Force Base 

said in the release. "The weapon is scheduled to be 

operational in fall 2023." 

This past May, the Air Force successfully tested 

the Lockheed Martin-developed ARRW hypersonic 

missile off the California coast, a major development 

in the United States' race to catch up to Russia and 

China in fielding its own weapon on the battlefield. 

Prior to that launch, the service had three unsuccessful 

hypersonic missile tests. 

Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury 

Institute for International Studies who specializes 

in nonproliferation and arms control issues, told 

Military.com on Thursday that hypersonics are a 

pretty exotic capability. While it's notable that the 

service is making progress, it's unclear how they 

plan to deploy the technology in battle. 

Hypersonic missiles' high speeds make them 

difficult to track, trace and destroy before hitting a 

target. Some defense industry experts have publicly 

assessed that adversaries like China and Russia have 

outpaced America in developing the weapons. 

In March, Russia's defense ministry claimed 

its military used hypersonic missiles against an 

underground ammunition warehouse as well as a 

fuel depot during the country's fighting in Ukraine. 

It would mark the first time a country had used such 

a weapon in combat. 

U.S. military officials largely downplayed their use 

in Ukraine, with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin 

telling CBS he "would not see it as a game changer." 

Similarly, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark 

Milley said during a House Appropriations defense 

subcommittee hearing on May 11 that Russia's use 

of hypersonics was not really significant. 

Russia has used at least a dozen hypersonic missiles 

in its invasion of Ukraine, according to a U.S. senior 

military official. 

Last year, military officials confirmed China 

had a successful hypersonic launch that had 

circumnavigated the globe. 

Hypersonic missiles -- some of which have nuclearcarrying 

capabilities -- often have nearly the same 

effect on a ground target as conventional bombs, 

making the use of the prohibitively expensive 

weapons surprising. 

But that hasn't stopped the U.S. from prioritizing 

research and development into the new class of 

weapons. In 2022, lawmakers approved $509 

million for hypersonics. That number has grown to 

$577 million in the 2023 budget proposal.


Bill to Help Deported 

Veterans and Non- 

Citizen Troops Clears 

House 

Deported veterans would have an easier path to returning to the 

United States, and non-citizen service members would have 

earlier opportunities to apply for naturalization under a bill passed 

Tuesday by the House. 

The bill, called the Veteran Service Recognition Act, would also 

add more hurdles to deporting non-citizen veterans. It cleared the 

House in a largely party-line 220-208 vote. 

"What American would deny that we should treat non-citizen 

veterans with fairness and compassion," House Veterans Affairs 

Committee Chairman Mark Takano, D-Calif., the bill's sponsor, 

said on the House floor. "This is an opportunity to honor our brave 

veterans for their heroism regardless of the country they were born 

in." 

The bill still needs to pass the Senate in order to become law, an 

unlikely prospect with just a couple weeks left in this congressional 

session and Republicans holding enough seats in the upper chamber 

to block bills they oppose. In passing the bill Tuesday, House 

Democrats used the last days of their majority to send a message 

on an issue they've been pushing since the Trump administration. 

Non-citizens are eligible for expedited citizenship if they serve 

honorably in the U.S. military. But advocates charge that defense 

and immigration officials put up too many hurdles in the process 

and don't do enough to inform immigrant service members of their 

eligibility. 

Deportations of immigrant veterans garnered significant attention 

during the Trump administration, which took a hard-line approach 

to immigration in general. 

The Biden administration has sought to roll back some of its 

predecessor's policies, including issuing a directive in June saying 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, will consider U.S. 

military service when deciding whether to deport veterans. 

The Biden administration has also been reviewing deported 

veterans' requests for humanitarian parole to reenter the United 

States under a program launched last year called the Immigrant 

Military Members and Veterans Initiative, or IMMVI. 

But immigration advocates say the Biden administration has not 

moved decisively enough. As of June, just 16 veterans and family 

members had been allowed back into the country under a temporary 

status known as humanitarian parole through the IMMVI program. 

Advocacy groups have also accused the Pentagon of slow-walking 

immigrant service members' citizenship applications despite a 2020 

court order nullifying the Trump administration's more difficult 

application process. 

“Men and women who served honorably should not face barriers 

to citizenship or face deportation from the country they served or 

fought to defend,” the American Legion said in written testimony 

to the House earlier this year in support of the bill. “It is only right 

that we recognize their service with the pathways to citizenship 

they deserve.” 

Under the bill approved by the House, non-citizen service members 

would have to be afforded the opportunity to apply for naturalization 

as soon as their first day of service. The bill would also call on 

the Pentagon to have a Citizenship and Immigration Services 

employee or someone else trained in immigration law stationed 

at each military entrance processing station to ensure non-citizen 

recruits have information on naturalization opportunities. 

In addition, the bill would allow deported veterans to apply to 

become legal permanent residents of the United States if they have 

not been convicted of a serious crime. 

And it would create a "Military Family Immigration Advisory 

Committee" at the Department of Homeland Security to review 

cases of veterans and their family members facing deportation and 

make recommendations, based in part on their military record, on 

whether they should be allowed to stay in the country. 

A couple hundred veterans could be affected by the bill, Takano 

said. 

In a statement Tuesday, the White House said it supports the bill 

and "recognizes the need to improve our laws to better protect 

noncitizens who honorably serve in the Armed Forces." 

Republicans largely opposed the bill over what they have described 

as a Biden administration-fueled "crisis" at the U.S.-Mexico 

border. Republicans cite record numbers of Customs and Border 

Protection encounters with immigrants at the border and drug 

seizure numbers. 

The bill "creates additional carve outs to an already broken 

immigration system," Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., the ranking member 

and likely next chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, 

said on the floor. "Right now, DHS can't even do their job of 

securing the southern border and enforcing immigration law." 

Republicans also argued that most deported veterans have 

committed other crimes and so are too dangerous to be in the 

country. 

Many deported veterans' convictions are drug-related, according 

to a 2019 Government Accountability Office report and some 

advocates argue that traumatic events in the military and a lack of 

access to resources afterward often contribute to those crimes.


The Defense Department has said the allowance 

is intended only to offset food costs for service 

members, not members of their family. Consequently, 

some military households are still struggling to pay 

for food. According to a Pentagon study earlier this 

year, almost 25% of active-duty troops had faced 

some degree of food insecurity during 2021. 

Pentagon Increases 

2023 Food Allowance 

for Troops by Largest 

Amount in 2 Decades 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is upping the 

amount of money that troops get every month to buy 

food, and the increase is the largest in two decades. 

The monthly food allowance for active-duty troops 

will rise by 11%, according to the Defense Finance 

and Accounting Service. Most enlisted service 

members will receive almost $453 monthly, and 

officers will get about $312. 

The increase, the largest since 2001, will take effect 

Jan. 1. 

Most enlisted personnel will get roughly an extra 

$45 per month, and officers about $31. The class of 

enlisted service member known as BAS II will see 

an increase from about $814 to about $905. BAS 

II troops are those assigned permanently to single 

government quarters that do not provide sufficient 

food. 

The allowance bump comes at a time of higher, 

but slowing, inflation in the United States that has 

resulted in more expensive necessities for families, 

such as food and gasoline. The Labor and Commerce 

departments have said the ongoing inflationary arc 

is mainly the result of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Russia’s war in Ukraine also has affected world 

energy markets and global supply chain problems 

have made certain products harder to buy. 

Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston said, 

in those cases, families can sign up for other federal 

assistance, such as the Supplemental Nutrition 

Assistance Program, or SNAP. 

“Many soldiers are not aware of these resources,” 

Grinston, the Army’s most senior enlisted member, 

said in August. “Via online tools, phone calls with 

personal financial counselors and visits to the local 

installation Army Community Service Center, help 

is just a click, call or a walk away, and there's no 

time like the present to get started.” 

Each year, the Defense Department looks at the 

Agriculture Department’s food price index to 

determine whether troops need more money for food. 

The USDA’s most recent data states food prices rose 

by 10.9% for the 12 months ending in October. For 

2023, the agency projected prices to rise another 3% 

or 4%. 

Some advocates said while giving troops more 

money for food is always welcome, it really doesn’t 

hit at the root of the problem. 

“More importantly than the allowance is making 

sure these dining facilities on [military] bases are 

places that people want to go,” said Steve Rossetti, 

president of the American Logistics Association, 

a nonprofit, Washington-based trade group of 

suppliers and manufacturers that provide services 

and products to the military. 

Rossetti said many troops aren’t using their entire 

food allowance. The reasons are lack of convenience 

and lack of appeal with the dining options on base. In 

the Air Force, he said, unused food money is twice 

as high. 

“It’s all about convenience, hours of operation. It’s 

all about the healthy dining options. It’s about giving 

people what they want,” he said. “And if they’re not 

using it, they lose it.”


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all-GOP slate of statewide constitutional 

officers. 

"I'll work with anyone to get things 

done for the people of Georgia," 

Warnock, the state's first Black senator, 

said throughout his campaign, a nod 

to the state's historically conservative 

lean and his need to win over GOPleaning 

independents and at least some 

moderate Republicans in a midterm 

election year. 

Democratic Sen. Warnock Wins 

Georgia Runoff Against Walker 

ATLANTA — Democratic Sen. 

Raphael Warnock defeated Republican 

challenger Herschel Walker in a Georgia 

runoff election Tuesday, ensuring 

Democrats an outright majority in 

the Senate for the rest of President 

Joe Biden's term and helping cap an 

underwhelming midterm cycle for the 

GOP in the last major vote of the year. 

party Senate control just months after 

Biden became the first Democratic 

presidential candidate in 30 years to 

win Georgia. Voters returned Warnock 

to the Senate in the same cycle they 

reelected Republican Gov. Brian Kemp 

by a comfortable margin and chose an 

Warnock, 53, paired that argument with 

an emphasis on his personal values, 

buoyed by his status as senior pastor 

of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, 

where civil rights icon Martin Luther 

King Jr. once preached. 

Walker's defeat bookends the GOP's 

struggles this year to win with flawed 

candidates cast from Trump's mold, 

a blow to the former president as he 

builds his third White House bid. 

Democrats' new outright majority in the 

Senate means the party will no longer 

With Warnock's second runoff victory 

in as many years, Democrats will have 

a 51-49 Senate majority, gaining a seat 

from the current 50-50 split with John 

Fetterman's victory in Pennsylvania. 

There will be divided government, 

however, with Republicans having 

narrowly flipped House control. 

In last month's election, Warnock 

led Walker by 37,000 votes out of 

almost 4 million cast, but fell short of 

the 50% threshold needed to avoid a 

runoff. Walker, a football legend who 

first gained fame at the University of 

Georgia and later in the NFL in the 

1980s, was unable to overcome a bevy 

of damaging allegations, including 

claims that he paid for two former 

girlfriends' abortions. 

Democrats' Georgia victory solidifies 

the state's place as a Deep South 

battleground two years after Warnock 

and fellow Georgia Democrat Jon 

Ossoff won 2021 runoffs that gave the


have to negotiate a power-sharing deal 

with Republicans and won't have to 

rely on Vice President Kamala Harris 

to break as many tie votes. 

About 1.9 million runoff votes were 

cast by mail and during early voting, 

while the state was on track for a 

robust Election Day, with state officials 

estimating an additional 1.4 million 

votes cast — slightly more than in 

the November midterm and the 2020 

election. 

Early and mail voting did not reach 

the same levels as years past, and it 

was likely the total number of votes 

cast would be less than the 2021 

Senate runoff election. Voting rights 

groups point to changes made by state 

lawmakers after the 2020 election that 

shortened the period for runoffs, from 

nine weeks to four, as a major reason 

for the decline in early and mail voting. 

Elections officials reported few 

problems processing early votes and 

tabulating ballots cast Tuesday, but 

there were some delays. In south 

Georgia's Lowndes County, two poll 

workers were in a car accident on the 

way to the county elections office with 

the memory cards from one precinct's 

polling machines. A Lowndes 

official said a member of the local 

elections board went to the accident 

site to retrieve the memory cards so 

tabulations could continue. 

Walker benefited during the campaign 

from nearly unmatched name 

recognition from his football career, 

yet was dogged by questions about 

his fitness for office and allegations of 

hypocrisy. 

A multimillionaire businessman, 

Walker inflated his philanthropic 

activities and business achievements, 

including claiming that his company 

employed hundreds of people and 

grossed tens of millions of dollars in 

sales annually, even though records 

indicate he had eight employees and 

averaged about $1.5 million a year. 

He has suggested that he's worked as a 

law enforcement officer and graduated 

college, though he has done neither. 

He was accused by two former 

girlfriends of encouraging and paying 

for their abortions, despite supporting 

an outright national ban on the 

procedure during the campaign. He 

denied both women's claims. 

He was also forced to acknowledge 

during the campaign that he had 

fathered three children out of wedlock 

whom he had never before spoken 

about publicly. The mother of one of 

those children told The Daily Beast 

that Walker had not seen his young son 

since January 2016 and had to be taken 

to court for child support — in direct 

conflict with Walker's years spent 

criticizing absentee fathers and his 

calls for Black men, in particular, to 

play an active role in their kids' lives. 

His ex-wife said Walker once held a 

gun to her head and threatened to kill 

her. He has never denied those specifics 

and wrote of his violent tendencies 

in a 2008 memoir that attributed the 

behavior to mental illness. 

As a candidate, he sometimes mangled 

policy discussions, attributing the 

climate crisis to China's "bad air" 

overtaking "good air" from the United 

States and arguing that diabetics could 

manage their health by "eating right," 

a practice that isn't enough for insulindependent 

diabetic patients. 

On Tuesday, Atlanta voter Tom 

Callaway praised the Republican 

Party's strength in Georgia and said 

he'd supported Kemp in the opening 

round of voting. But he said he cast 

his ballot for Warnock because he 

didn't think "Herschel Walker has the 

credentials to be a senator." 

"I didn't believe he had a statement 

of what he really believed in or had a 

campaign that made sense," Callaway 

said. 

Walker, meanwhile, sought to portray 

Warnock as a yes-man for Biden. He 

sometimes made the attack in especially 

personal terms, accusing Warnock of 

"being on his knees, begging" at the 

White House — a searing charge for 

a Black challenger to level against a 

Black senator about his relationship 

with a white president. 

"My opponent is not a serious person," 

Warnock said during the runoff 

campaign. "But the election is very 

serious. Don't get those two things 

confused." 

Warnock promoted his Senate 

accomplishments, touting a provision 

he sponsored to cap insulin costs for 

Medicare patients. He hailed deals 

on infrastructure and maternal health 

care forged with Republican senators, 

mentioning those GOP colleagues 

more than he did Biden or other 

Washington Democrats. 

Warnock distanced himself from 

Biden, whose approval ratings have 

lagged as inflation remains high. After 

the general election, Biden promised 

to help Warnock in any way he could, 

even if it meant staying away from 

Georgia. Bypassing the president, 

Warnock decided instead to campaign 

with former President Barack Obama 

in the days before the runoff election. 

Walker, meanwhile, avoided 

campaigning with Trump until the 

campaign's final day, when the pair 

conducted a conference call Monday 

with supporters. 

Walker joins failed Senate nominees 

Dr. Mehmet Oz of Pennsylvania, Blake 

Masters of Arizona, Adam Laxalt 

of Nevada and Don Bolduc of New 

Hampshire as Trump loyalists who 

ultimately lost races that Republicans 

once thought they would — or at least 

could — win.


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US Military to Increase 

Rotations to Australia 

Facing Growing China 

Threat 

The U.S. military will step 

up the number of air, land 

and sea units that rotate 

through Australia as allies in 

the region bolster security in 

reaction to an increasingly 

assertive China, Defense 

Secretary Lloyd Austin said 

Tuesday. 

The agreement was finalized 

during a joint U.S.-Australia 

meeting that included 

Austin and his defense 

minister counterpart from 

Canberra. Details of the 

increased rotations were not 

immediately provided, but 

Austin said they would be 

released soon. 

The first military rotation 

to the country occurred in 

2012 when 200 Marines 

arrived in Darwin, a city in 

the north of Australia that 

sits on the Timor Sea about 

2,000 miles from mainland 

China. That troop presence 

now includes thousands who 

train with Australian defense 

forces. Defense cooperation 

has deepened over the past 

decade, with the U.S. and 

U.K. announcing last year 

they would help Australia 

build nuclear-powered 

submarines. 

"Based upon today's 

talks, we will increase the 

rotational presence of U.S. 

forces in Australia," Austin 

said at a press conference 

at the State Department. 

"That includes rotations of 

bomber task forces, fighters 

and future rotations of 

U.S. Navy and U.S. Army 

capabilities." 

In 2019, 2,500 Marines 

rotated through Darwin, 

though the numbers dipped 

during the COVID-19 

pandemic, according to the 

Australian government. 

The two countries also 

agreed during the talks to 

deepen ties between their 

defense industrial bases and 

invite Japan to participate 

in the activities of the 

U.S. rotational forces. The 

meeting included Secretary 

of State Antony Blinken, 

Australian Minister of 

Foreign Affairs Penny 

Wong, and Australian 

Defense Minister Richard 

Marles. 

Marles said there will be 

increased activity between 

the U.S. and Australian 

forces across all military 

domains following the talks. 

"We're also looking at 

increased force posture 

cooperation in enhancing 

the capacity of facilities 

in Australia," meaning 

improvements to bases and 

properties used by U.S. 

forces during the rotations, 

he said. 

The longtime alliance 

with Australia has been 

intensified by China's 

global rise and increasing 

territorial claims and 

military presence in the far 

western Pacific, challenging 

the U.S. military and its 

allies. 

An annual Pentagon report 

released last month found 

that China has become more 

belligerent over the past two 

years, including live-fire 

missile drills when House 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi 

visited Taiwan in August. 

The report also found that 

Beijing could increase its 

nuclear arsenal more than 

threefold to 1,500 warheads 

by the middle of the next 

decade. 

"The United States and 

Australia share a vision of a 

region where countries can 

determine their own futures, 

and they should be able to 

seek security and prosperity 

free from coercion and 

intimidation," Austin said. 

"Unfortunately, that vision 

is being challenged. China's 

dangerous and coercive 

actions throughout the Indo- 

Pacific, including around 

Taiwan, toward the Pacific 

island countries, and in the 

East and South China Seas, 

threaten regional peace and 

stability." 

The increased military 

presence in Australia comes 

after the U.S. and U.K. 

announced in September 

2021 that they had agreed 

to school the Australians on 

the "extremely sensitive" 

technology of nuclearpowered 

submarines. The 

U.S. had previously shared 

the technology only with 

the British. 

The agreement, called 

AUKUS as an acronym 

for the three countries, 

will provide Canberra a 

fleet of subs with greater 

stealth, speed, survivability 

and endurance -- and an 

advantage in the region 

against China. 

"We're committed to deliver 

on that promise at the earliest 

possible time," Blinken said 

during the press conference. 

Marles said the nuclear 

sub technology was poised 

to transform Australia's 

strategic posture. "It will 

increase our capability 

dramatically," he said.


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Crew That Delivered 

Baby Mid-Flight from 

Afghanistan Will 

Receive Distinguished 

Flying Cross 

Members of a C-17 Globemaster crew who helped deliver a 

baby in the middle of a chaotic Afghanistan evacuation flight 

last year will be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross 

next week, as the Air Force continues to clear a backlog of 

awards related to the mission. 

Capt. Dennis Conner, Capt. Leslie Green, Lt. Col. Wesley 

Adams and Tech. Sgt. Leah Schmidt will be recognized Nov. 

21 by Air Force Gen. Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility 

Command, at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, for 

helping deliver the baby. 

"We are proud of the accomplishments of the dedicated 

crew and thankful that they are being recognized in such a 

distinctive way," Col. John F. Robinson, Charleston's 315th 

Airlift Wing commander, told Military.com in an emailed 

statement Friday. 

Since 1927, when it was first awarded by then-President 

Calvin Coolidge, the Distinguished Flying Cross has been 

given to service members for acts of heroism during aerial 

operations. 

Typically, Air Mobility Command service members assist 

combat operations indirectly and do not often see the kind 

of action that makes them eligible for the award. But last 

month, the Air Force announced it would be awarding 96 

Distinguished Flying Crosses, 12 Bronze Star Medals and 

one Gallant Unit Citation to airmen who assisted with the 

largest non-combat air evacuation operation in U.S. history. 

Minihan will award a total of 36 Distinguished Flying 

Crosses at Joint Base Charleston on Monday. The service 

has faced months of delays since the Afghanistan evacuation 

in recognizing airmen for bravery. Leadership previously 

expected that a review backlog would likely remain into 

2023. 

When Minihan announced the number of awards last 

month, he admitted the service should have recognized 

these airmen's efforts sooner and worked to speed along the 

awards process. 

"Make no mistake, we should have done this last year 

immediately after the operation, and I recognize our 

airmen's frustration with the process," Minihan said in late


October. "We're making that 

landed with 271," Adams 

airport's Abbey Gate on Aug. 

Brown said during the 

right, and we've worked 

said in a press release last 

26, 2021, killing 13 troops 

ceremony that Orellana's 

with our partners across 

year. 

-- 11 Marines, a sailor and a 

award was the first 

the Air Force to ensure 

AMC is able to swiftly and 

effectively recognize our 

mobility warriors." 

A spokesman for Air 

Mobility Command told 

Military.com that about 

half of the 96 Distinguished 

soldier; wounding more than 

20 other troops; and killing 

or wounding hundreds of 

Afghans. 

Distinguished Flying Cross 

he had presented during his 

career. 

More awards outside of the 

The baby born during 

Flying Crosses still need to 

Orellana was among the first 

nearly 100 announced in 

the C-17 flight was one 

be awarded. 

to respond to the casualties at 

October are still on the way. 

of several children who 

were delivered during the 

Afghanistan evacuation. 

On Aug. 23, 2021, while in 

a holding pattern waiting to 

land after evacuating Kabul, 

Conner received a report 

from loadmaster Schmidt 

that there was a woman in 

distress who shut herself in 

the lavatory. 

Green, an Air Force flight 

nurse, discovered the 

Most recently, Air Force 

Chief of Staff Gen. Charles 

"CQ" Brown Jr. visited the 

375th Air Mobility Wing 

at Scott Air Force Base 

in Illinois on Thursday to 

present the Distinguished 

Flying Cross to Tech. Sgt. 

Katherine Rosa Orellana. 

The Afghanistan evacuation 

effort saw the final U.S. 

casualties of the war when a 

suicide bomber struck at the 

Hamid Karzai International 

Airport that day, and she 

helped evacuate and save the 

lives of 22 service members 

and refugees over an eighthour 

period. 

"I joined the team a week 

prior and had to trust they 

knew what they were doing, 

and when we went in, we just 

did our jobs," Orellana said 

in a Thursday press release. 

"And we did really well." 

Air Mobility Command said 

350 additional individual 

awards were approved for 

Operation Allies Refuge, 

and individual commanders 

have approved more than 

4,500 medals that didn't 

require a board review 

for Mobility Air Forces 

airmen who supported the 

operation. 

woman in the bathroom 

was in labor. At about 1,000 

feet in the air, Schmidt and 

Green began to help her 

give birth. 

"The baby was perfect! ... a 

little bit small; it definitely 

didn't make it full term, 

but it came out crying," 

Green said in a press release 

describing the incident 

last year. "She [the baby] 

seemed to be doing well in 

this world." 

Adams, who was helping to 

pilot the plane, said Conner 

made one of the smoothest 

landings he ever saw after 

the baby was born. 

"Someone said, 'We took off 

with 270 children, and we


Navy to Accept Recruits with Lowest Test Scores as 

Recruiting Goal Grows 

The Navy unveiled new guidelines Monday 

that allow the service to enlist thousands of 

sailors with entrance test scores that fall into the 

lowest aptitude percentile allowed by military 

standards as it faces a higher recruiting goal, 

according to a notice from Navy Recruiting 

Command reviewed by Military.com. 

Under the program, the service can recruit and 

contract up to 7,500 prospective sailors this year 

who fall under what the military calls "Category 

IV" recruits, or high school diploma-holding 

applicants who score within the 10th and 30th 

percentile on the Armed Forces Qualification 

Test, or AFQT. Up to 20% of this year's activeduty 

enlisted pool could fall into the lowest 

allowable aptitude percentile. 

The military has struggled with recruiting this 

year and, while it appears that the Navy is in 

calmer waters compared to its sister branches, 

namely the Army, the sea service squeaked by 

last year's active-duty enlistment goal by just 

42 sailors. Now, it's been handed a goal that has 

been increased by more than 4,000 applicants, 

and the pressure to get prospective sailors to 

raise their right hand is high. 

"As we continue to navigate a challenging 

recruiting environment, changing the AFQT 

requirement removes a potential barrier to 

enlistment, allowing us to widen the pool of 

potential recruits and creating opportunities 

for personnel who wish to serve," Cmdr. David 

Benham, spokesperson for Commander, Navy 

Recruiting Command, told Military.com via 

email Monday. 

The notice, which was posted on social media 

and confirmed by the Navy, was effective as


of Monday. Benham confirmed the service's 

previous and future recruiting goals to Military. 

com. 

He emphasized that the AFQT is graded on a 

scale against other applicants and is a barrier 

the Navy wanted to remove to expand the 

applicant pool. It is "not the determining 

factor" for eligibility as long as the applicant 

has a high school degree and does not score 

below the 10th percentile on the test, Benham 

told Military.com in a follow-up phone call. 

"There'll be folks that score 10 that also don't 

qualify for a rating and therefore they're unable 

to join," he said. "There's going to be folks 

who score 30 or 40 or whatever, but still don't 

qualify for a rating and therefore would be 

unable to join." 

The AFQT is part of the more commonly known 

Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, or 

ASVAB. While the AFQT determines whether 

someone is eligible for military service at all, 

the ASVAB determines the applicant's job 

prospects -- and Benham said that the "line 

scores" or subjects that relate to occupationspecific 

topics like general science, math or 

mechanical comprehension in the ASVAB 

remain the crux of eligibility. 

"Individual Navy rating requirements are 

based off these fixed line scores, not the overall 

AFQT score," he said over email. "To qualify 

for enlistment, the individual must still meet 

the minimum line score requirement for a 

given Navy rating. These ASVAB line score 

requirements are unchanged by this policy, and 

they are not waiverable." 

When asked whether the Navy is concerned 

that the change would produce a lower-quality 

talent pool, Benham again pointed to the line 

scores. 

"Anybody who comes in under this change in 

policy will have still met the requirements to 

serve," he said over the phone, emphasizing 

that the Navy sees the notice as providing 

an opportunity for those hampered by AFQT 

scores, which are scaled based on all applicants. 

He also emphasized that the 20% number for 

recruiting is a maximum, not a goal. But the 

policy change comes as other services attempt 

to broaden the pool. 

Over the summer, the Army -- which missed its 

recruiting goal by 15,000 soldiers -- attempted 

to drop high school diploma requirements 

completely, only to reverse the policy almost 

immediately after the move was made public. 

The Army also expanded efforts to shape up 

overweight or low-scoring recruits before they 

hit basic training, Military.com reported last 

month. 

Last year, the Congressional Research 

Service reported that since 1993 the Defense 

Department's quality benchmarks for recruits 

have stipulated that at least 90% of enlistees 

without prior service must be high school 

graduates, and at least 60% must score above 

average on the AFQT. 

It added that Pentagon regulations require that 

"no more than 4%" of the annual recruit cohort 

be in the Category IV bracket. Those who score 

less than the 10th percentile -- Category V -- 

are not allowed in the military at all.


Legal Saga Over Army’s 

Denial of Reservists’ 

Housing Allowances 

Takes Another Turn 

STUTTGART, Germany — 

More than a year after the 

Army’s highest review board 

ruled that the service illegally 

denied a group of reservists 

hundreds of thousands of 

dollars in housing benefits, the 

panel has been ordered to take 

up the matter again. 

That decision was made Friday 

by the Court of Federal Claims 

in Washington and comes in 

response to the Army’s refusal 

to follow an order from its 

own Board of Corrections. 

Hundreds or even thousands of 

reservists were likely affected 

over the years, defense 

attorneys have said. 

The order obligated the service 

to repay soldiers who had been 

wrongfully denied housing 

payments and subjected to 

erroneous criminal probes that 

killed careers. 

“I was investigated four 

times in seven years. Missed 

(brigadier general) promotion, 

name ruined, damaged my 

career, my children, my wife,” 

said Richard Gulley, one of 

the plaintiffs in the case, who 

previously served as a colonel 

at U.S. Africa Command 

headquarters in Stuttgart. 

“How many (people’s) lives 

were destroyed?” 

Gulley is one of now 33 

plaintiffs suing the Army, 

which in August 2021 was 

found to have broken the law 

when it denied dual housing 

allowances to a contingent 

of reservists mobilized for 

assignments in Europe. 

The dispute centers on a 

contention by Army finance 

officials that reservists who 

mobilized from the U.S. for 

assignments abroad aren’t 

entitled to a basic housing 

allowance for their American 

residence and an overseas 

housing allowance if the 

Army fails to provide on-post 

accommodations. 

For years, reservists were paid 

the dual allowances, since they 

still needed to pay rents and 

mortgages while deployed. 

But in 2016, finance officials 

in Wiesbaden changed their 

interpretation of the Joint 

Travel Regulation. 

As a result, reservists were 

permitted only one allowance. 

The change was applied 

retroactively, so Army finance 

officials began targeting 

those who had received dual 

payments. 

But the Army review board, in 

its initial August 2021 decision, 

said the service’s rationale 

violated federal regulations 

and led to “unjust actions” 

against reservists. 

The people affected faced 

invasive criminal fraud probes, 

were denied promotions and 

went into debt as the service 

sought to recoup hundreds 

of thousands of dollars in 

allowances that had been paid. 

The Army was ordered to repay 

seven soldiers involved in the 

initial lawsuit no later than 

October 2021 while deleting 

all negative findings from 

files and criminal databases 

related to the cases. But the 

repayments never came amid 

ongoing legal maneuvering by 

government attorneys. 

With the case now ordered back 

to the Army board for a second 

time, more reservists who were 

treated in a similar manner 

can be added as plaintiffs, said 

attorney Patrick Hughes of the 

Patriots Law Group, which is 

handling the lawsuit. 

“We are in the process of 

getting the word out again 

on that,” Hughes said. 

“Otherwise, the Army may 

get to avoid paying six-plus 

years of dual entitlements 

like it should have to all these 

(reserve component) members 

in Europe, if the (Army board) 

agrees that was appropriate 

based on the judge’s order.” 

The ongoing legal wrangling 

revolves around the Army’s 

new contention that it can’t 

pay the reservists despite being 

ordered to do so. 

Government lawyers are 

arguing that the Defense 

Finance and Accounting 

Service could not pay the 

reservists because of other 

regulations. They claim 

that it may only pay reserve 

members with dependents in 

the same fashion as active-duty 

members, through a family 

separation basic allowance for 

housing overseas. 

That separation allowance 

can’t be paid if a reservist’s 

family member spends more 

than 90 days in the same 

area where the reservist has 

been mobilized, the Army’s 

attorneys argued in an August 

court filing. 

DFAS determined that plaintiffs 

with dependents could be 

eligible for relief as intended 

by the Army board’s decision 

under the family separation 

allowance, the government’s 

lawyers said. 

But to do that, DFAS would 

need to know where family 

members were during the 

reservists’ mobilization, which 

the Army board did not address. 

The reservists countered that 

the government’s argument 

conflated rules that apply to 

active-duty personnel with 

those for reservists. 

While active-duty soldiers are 

sent on permanent duty station 

assignments with household 

goods moves, reservists 

are generally mobilized on 

temporary assignments that 

don’t allow for the relocation of 

property and family members. 

Judge Armando Bonilla, in 

his Friday ruling, appeared 

to concur with the plaintiff’s 

argument, noting that a second 

housing allowance can be 

granted when dependent 

relocation isn’t authorized 

at government expense and 

when the Army can’t provide 

assigned government quarters. 

Nonetheless, the judge said the 

Army Board of Corrections 

is still the venue to resolve 

the matter. Bonilla gave the 

board 180 days to complete its 

review.

December 2022 — MHCE Newsletter

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